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CD-R Lifespan - Is It The Label?
sysadmn writes "Slashdot has discussed archival lifespan of CD-R media before. Fred Langa revisits the issue with a new twist: Are glue-on labels causing premature failure? Much more common than rain forest fungus! From Fred's informative LangaList newsletter."
To demonstrate the durability of CD-R media, my ex-roommate once licked the active side. I hope neither the dye nor the plastic is toxic. But since I was always suspicious my roomie may have had a few screws loose, that may not matter too much.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Would could should...
Take four drives and record CD-R in a RAID 5 manner?
This way if you loose 1 CD, the other 3 will recover.
But then again using RAID will de-bug your software.
Considering how cheap hard drives are now (about $100 for a 150G disk) it's better to buy multiple hard disks to back things up.
I've decided that if I want to back up my important media for my business, I am going to make a storage machine. Basically it will be a low end machine with a fast network connection and a lot of hard disk space. Each night when I want to back things up I'll send all the files over to the backup machine. To be extra safe I would double the drives in the machine and setup a chron job to copy files from one disk to the other and mirror the drives. That way if one physical disk fails, the files are backed up on another. Also, I'd give it a wireless connection and put it on a very well surge protected power strip. That way lightening is less likely to get to it. Yes, call me paranoid, but I've lost so much data due to media failure that I don't take the risk anymore.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
So CDs actually get "loose" somehow before they fail? When this happens, what is the preferred method of tightening them back up?
Yeah, now I know to stay the fuck away from Third World shitholes where the savages will break into boats and toss shiny things into the water. Thanks for the heads up!
What about my sharpie? Is it actually acidic and going to eat a "Nasty Pr0n 3 of 17" imprint through my disc? That would suck. We're probably going to end up preserving CD-Rs naked (labelless) in little labeled air-tight jars like lab specimen.
Awww get off there backs. It's not they're fault that their illiterate.
it's in my head
Parchment can last longer than that if you take proper care of it. You might need to design a special printer to use it. My suggestion would be to have thousands of monks make copies of your data.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Fortunately, being of the "sunlight? what's that?" geek variety - you know, those of us who keep the A/C at 65 and only go out at night - I'm unaffected
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
"a friend who is on a small boat somewhere in PNG:"
;)
Be thankful they weren't in a jpg... that lossy compression and all
For one thing, humidity causes the clue to come off
I for one think this is crucial point in the SCO law suits. Someone needs to get SCO some dehumidifiers so that their clues won't keep coming off.
Some discs read very smoothly while others require all kinds of speed adjustments by the drive to get data out of them.
getting data out of DVDs? the data is supposed to stay in them! You are in violation of the DMCA. please turn off and step away from the computer and wait calmly for Ashcroft to arrive in a fleet of black helicopters
We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.